


Someday Later

by traptrixnepenthes



Category: Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Rays (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, sorry for writing a fic about an event that's not publicly translated yet. it happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29361126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traptrixnepenthes/pseuds/traptrixnepenthes
Summary: i don't have much to say about this! a small little sketch i did a while back that's an extension of a scene from a recent tales of the rays event (the regal one). i translated that event myself so you're just going to have to trust methis is about mithos not knowing how to deal with someone being kind to him.
Relationships: Genis Sage/Mithos Yggdrasill
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Someday Later

Everyone else had already started taking the path back to the entrance to the hideout, but Genis was hanging back. Lloyd glanced back at him and Mithos, but didn’t say anything and just kept walking away. It wasn’t until everyone else was out of earshot that Mithos said, “Genis, you need to go back with everyone else.”

“You should come too, Mithos.”

It had been a while since they’d had a conversation like this, and it never got easier. There was a hopeful look on Genis’s face that he was clearly trying to suppress, and he reached out and grabbed one of Mithos’s hands. It would’ve been so, so easy to let himself follow after him, to let himself have the chance to see Genis’s smiling face every day again, to live the life he’d let himself fantasize about so very briefly in their previous world--him and Genis and Raine and Martel, all getting to live happily side by side. It was so tantalizingly close, Genis’s hand was literally right there in his own, but Mithos shook his head and pulled his hand away. “I’m...fine.”

“Mithos…” _Don’t look at me like that,_ he wanted to shout at him, but he could never raise his voice at Genis. “You’re thinking about what Regal said, aren’t you?”

“I’m not,” Mithos lied. From the look on Genis’s face, he knew it was a lie too, but there was still a point in telling it anyways. “I don't regret what I've done. No matter what, I would always prioritize saving my sister, even if that is just my ego talking. To that end, I'm willing to walk over as many lives as I have to. That's just how I live.”

“...I know.” _Then stop looking at me like that._ “It’s just...here in this world, you fight alongside us. I know you wouldn’t change your past even if you could, but you can still change the future, right?”

Genis had given up on trying to pretend he wasn’t hoping Mithos would come back with him, and it made his chest ache. Mithos wanted to go with him more than anything, but he knew he shouldn’t. Once upon a time, in a world far from this one, Mithos had tried to kill Genis, had aimed where he knew it would hurt the most, and yet Genis was still so stubbornly insisting that things were different here. It wasn’t like being in another world would change the fact that Mithos had killed more people than there were stars in the sky. It wouldn’t change the fact that the hands Genis wanted to hold so gently were stained with blood.

Mithos took a deep, shaky breath, and smiled. “Maybe that’s true. But you really should be going back with everyone else.”

And just like that, the hopeful look on Genis’s face wilted, and that made Mithos’s chest ache, too. Genis wasn’t very good at hiding his feelings, and Mithos knew that his words were hurting him. Shouldn’t that make him more reluctant to keep reaching out like this? But Genis just smiled as best he could, even if it was still so brittle it looked like it was going to shatter as soon as he turned away. “...Alright. I guess...I’ll see you later, then.”

Genis turned to leave, the smile already crumbling away, and Mithos felt something in him _break_. He reached out and grabbed Genis’s hand, squeezing it so tight he could feel the bones move and shift beneath his fingers. “This would be so much easier if you just hated me,” he confessed in this truly pathetic moment of weakness. He was a strong person, he knew he was strong, stronger than anything, but he still wasn’t strong enough to weather that look on Genis’s face every time he rejected the invitation to go and live with him. “If you hated me, you wouldn’t keep getting hurt by me. If you just hated me, it’d be so much easier for you to be able to live happily. If you just hated me…”

Genis turned back to look at him, and Mithos looked away before their eyes could meet. He didn’t want Genis to see him like this, and he didn’t want to see Genis looking at him the way he always did. He hated that he could only be honest when he was weak, and he hated how obviously desperate he was right now, clinging to Genis like he was the only solid thing in the world.

He still knew Genis didn’t hate him, though. That was one thing he could have faith in.

Mithos heard Genis take a step closer, and a moment later, felt an arm wrap around him. It was only half of a hug since Mithos was refusing to let his hand go, but it was still enough to get the emotions through loud and clear. “Sorry,” Genis said, his voice quiet. “I can’t do that.”

“I wish you could.”

“I know.” Genis squeezed his hand back. “But I can’t hate you any more than you could hate me.”

Mithos took another deep, shaky breath. Letting himself ease up on the restrictions his Cruxis Crystal gave him was a mistake. He was on the verge of crying again. “You should. I don’t understand why you don’t. I tried to kill you.”

“We tried to kill you, too.”

“I’ve killed people. I was going to kill Colette.”

“I’ve...killed people too, you know.” Genis hugged him tighter, and Mithos could feel his death grip on Genis’s hand loosening a little bit. He really was getting weak. “Remember how you said we’re a lot alike? That didn’t just stop being true just because you’ve decided you’re a villain. It’s not like I’m anywhere close to being a perfect hero, either.”

“I…” Mithos squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the pricking at the corners of his eyes, and buried his face in Genis’s hair. He couldn’t even tell if these tears were because he was happy or sad or maybe even angry about Genis’s words. “I’ve hurt you worse than probably anyone else in the world.”

“And you’ve saved me, too.” Genis’s voice was sickeningly kind. Mithos didn’t deserve this. “More than once, even. You saved all of us.”

No matter what argument Mithos put up, Genis knew how to counter it. Maybe it was just because of how overemotional he was, but he was starting to run out of reasons, but Genis was still holding his hand, still hugging him tight. 

“The truth is,” Genis said, “in our old world, everyone was planning to kill you. I wanted to save you if I could, but if I couldn’t, I’d...mostly accepted what I had to do. That if anyone had to do it, it should at least be me. Isn’t that more worth hating?”

“...No.” Mithos could barely get his words out. “I can’t hate you.”

“We’re in a world now where we don’t have to fight each other. It’s actually better if we don’t. Being here doesn’t erase all the things we’ve done, and the people that we’ve hurt, but…I want to think that we could at least be together now, the way that we promised.”

In a perfect world, one where Mithos wasn’t the most vile criminal of all time, he would’ve agreed. In some senses, he _did_ agree; there was nothing in the world he wanted more than to be with Genis for as long as possible. Together forever, just like they’d promised to each other in a field of flowers. He wanted that so badly it hurt, and presumably, Genis did, too.

“I...can’t,” Mithos said again.

Genis sighed at him, but it wasn’t an annoyed sound. “You’re even more stubborn than Lloyd is, you know that? But I guess you wouldn’t be you without that, so I don’t mind.”

“Genis...you’re an idiot.”

Genis laughed and squeezed his arm around Mithos’s chest and interlaced their fingers, and Mithos smiled despite himself. “Yeah, maybe. I guess it balances out, ‘cause I think you’re an idiot too for acting like this.”

“...That’s fair.” He was finally able to return the half a hug, still clinging desperately to Genis’s hand. He needed to let go, needed to distance himself again, but he just wasn’t quite ready to yet.

“I don’t mind waiting until you stop being an idiot, though. Or maybe I’ll just leave everyone else and come live with you instead, until you stop being stubborn and come be with all of us. My sister would probably fret herself half to death, but she’d also know I’d be safe with you no matter what, so…”

Again, Mithos’s heart constricted painfully. “You can’t,” he said, but he knew that was a pretty pathetic objection. He knew as well as Genis did that if Genis _really_ wanted to commit to that plan, there was no way he was going to stop him.

“Hmm… Not without telling everyone else, first, at least. And there’s some things I would want to pack first too… Well, I’ll think about it.”

Genis wasn’t moving, and Mithos didn’t want to move either, even if they were in a public place, on the side of a not-too-traveled road. For the first time since they’d met, Mithos was able to feel how warm Genis’s hands were, and the texture of his hair, and the swells of emotion that had already been nearly uncontrollable even when they were halfway suppressed by the crystal in his chest. He didn’t deserve any of this, but he wasn’t quite ready to give it up just yet.

“...Is it...okay if we stay here a little longer?”

“I was the one who didn’t want to leave anyways, stupid.”

Mithos smiled. Maybe...just a little bit was fine.


End file.
